To propel ourselves up in our careers, it is important to be recognized by our bosses and senior management about who we are and what we do.
System-wise, the people at the top of the hierarchy have lesser time and thus lesser patience when communicating with subordinate staff. While in some cases this might be based on the individual character of the person, in most cases it is all about the position they are in and the value of time for them.
Here are 5 tips on what do you have to keep in mind while trying to communicate better with the senior management in your organization.
1. Understand how they work
Some people are purely result-oriented and not very concerned about how you get the work done. While there are others, who prefer a particular process/system to be followed to achieve the results.
The sooner you understand into which category the person you are working with falls in, the better you would be able to understand what their expectations are from your work.
2. Speak their language
While it obviously makes things easier if you both speak the same language (in the literal sense), the language I intend here is different.
Understand what terminologies/ideologies the person is more receptive to. While some prefer to speak business only in terms of numbers, some would prefer looking only at the bigger picture irrespective of what happens in the intricacies.
Some others might just look at the qualitative impact of the work being done and yet another bunch might only be happy with cutting the costs down.
Understand which language they speak and what they want to hear. And then just present your stuff in that language.
3. Get to the point; Be quick
While this works in every aspect of your personal and professional life, it holds all the more leverage when it comes to communicating with senior management.
Do not keep rambling and explaining its and bits of your work. Get to the point, in their language. The sooner you reach there, the more time you have to hear back from them and understand better about what their expectations are.
4. Ask questions
One thing I have learned from my experience is that most people love to give advice and help with answers.
Senior management wants to upskill their people. Once you have a knack of what their language is and how they think in terms of their work, asking intelligent questions always puts you on their radar as someone who’s making good use of that wobbly ball of flesh sitting on your shoulders.
The more you interact with them, the more you learn. The best way to get more answers is to ask more questions.
5. Evaluate their weaknesses and fill that gap
No matter how senior an employee, there will always be an area of weakness for them. An area, they themselves know that they would need advice/suggestions on. If you can critically identify the area/s your supervisor/senior manager is seeking help on, without them being vocal about it, and support them in that, it would genuinely lead to a very healthy and flourishing work relationship.
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Article contributed by Vijay S Paul
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About the author
Vijay S Paul is a communications professional, content strategist, blogger and IEEE member of 12 years. He is also the Founder of Typewriter Media.
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